Cookbooks To Savor

Nigella Lawson: FeastWhat cooking, especially for family and loved-ones is all about.

Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee: Eating KoreanI would place this cookbook in my top 10 of all time. The recipes are delicious and each section is packed with the best of Korean home cooking. The stories are wonderful, too. Highly recommend.

Irma S. Rombauer: The Joy of Cooking (not the "All New", the old school one) I don't so much like this for main dish and salad recipes as for baked goods, sauces, and jams. I have my mother's copy, and when I was about 12, my favorite thing to do was to make tea sandwiches from this cookbook. Every weekend I'd make a couple of different kinds until I worked my way through all the spreads and fillings. A good basic cookbook.

Went to the library today and checked out three cookbooks, one of which was Nigella Lawson's Feast. I love her for so many reasons. That she cooks her hams in Cherry Coke, that she loves roast chicken and cheeseburgers and 4-minute eggs. That she eats from the fridge. That she is an unapologetic carnivore.

She never takes herself too seriously. (I cannot abide food snobs.) She is wry and witty and, let's face it, beautiful. Her cookbooks are the only ones my husband flips through and I'm not sure he's looking at the recipes... Plus, her pasta with chili, crab, and watercress is perfection on a plate.

I love to cook holiday meals and I can create any reason to throw a party. For that reason, reading Feast this afternoon was truly a joyful experience. It covers every occassion from Christmas to kids' parties.

I found myself nodding along to and agreeing with so much of her writing. Sometimes I feel like no one else understands my obsession with cooking and why it's "easy" for me to cook what I think are great meals most every day. Cooking for my family is a pleasure in every sense of the word. Lawson says,

I know quite how smugly idiotic it sounds to say that every meal should be a feast, but I certainly aim for that...What I eat myself or just the two of us eat nightly, when the children are in bed, has to be more important to the fabric of life than what I might choose to give a tableful of people once in a blue moon...I want to wallow in the ways I celebrate the comforting everydayness of life.

A staple in my cupboard is matzo ball mix. I buy it in threes and when I only have one box left I buy three more. I know you can make matzo balls from scratch pretty easily but I like the mix. Dinner once a month in the winter time is matzo ball soup (sometimes with pastina added). A quart of broth (boxed or homemade), some chopped carrots and celery , fluffy-yummy matzo balls, and a sprinkling of dill.

When I saw my most favorite, only-available-in-Italy pasta at Costco last weekend, I almost fell over in astonishment. This is the pasta that my sister hand-carried—lovinglyhand-carried—back from Italy for me... The pasta that I've been rationing and only cooking with the most special sauces because it's so divine... The pasta that I requested my cousin to bring my when he visits form Italy this summer...is now available at Costco (in Mountain View, Calif.).

Foodies, non-foodies, YOU. Run to Costco and buy it by the case. Trust me. (You trusted me before when I told you that the imported Tuscan olive oil from Costco was da bomb.) This pasta is the most delicious, chewiest, most wonderfully-textured "everyday" pasta you will ever eat. And it's available at Costco.

My idea for what to make for our Super Bowl party changed about a thousand times over the course of the week. We knew we wanted to do something sandwichy. We thought about Togo's (too many choices). We thought about getting a bunch of Vietnamese sandwiches (J. thought peeps might think they were too weird, but god I love them) then we thought about a build-your-own sandwich bar. Which is what we intended to get fixin's for when we set out for Costco this morning.

But then, we had another, final change of course mid-stream and it became all about chili dogs. So chili dogs are what we are having.

I'm also making deconstructed deviled eggs "a la Ikea" (where I got my inspiration, photo above). I'm halving eggs and topping them with a squiggle of salmon pate and black and red lumpfish caviar. Some will simply be sprinkled with truffle salt.

Since I was at Ikea buying pate and caviar, we'll also be having an assortment of Sveeeeedish cheeses including one made with aquavit which I am excited to try.

I'm making guacamole since we picked up the trash-can-sized bag of chips at Costco.

And to wash it all down. Sweet, sweet beer.

Friends are potlucking the rest of the appetizers and I can't wait to see what gets added to the mix. Back to stirring chili. If you have your menu planned, please share it!

My sister made the most delicious salmon mousse topped with ikura (salmon roe) for our New Year's Eve Party so I am doing a twist on her recipe and using oil-packed tuna for our Super Bowl Party. (Photo to come as soon as I unmold it tomorrow above). Her original idea was to do a tuna mousse for NYE, but for some reason she changed her mind.my sister's salmon mousse

I wish I had a more precise recipe, but this is one of those that defines my tagline: I don't have time to measure so I just eye-balled it. I promise, there is so much gelatin in this recipe that you don't have to worry about it setting up.

In a Cuisinart, whiz tuna, lemon juice, and lemon zest until very smooth (think baby food consistency). Add mayo and dissolved gelatin mixture (you don't have to use all of it). Whiz until well-combined. Check for salt and pepper. Transfer tuna mixture into a large mixing bowl.

Fold half the whipped cream into the tuna mixture. Blend well. Incorporate the rest of the whipped cream into the tuna mixture.

Line the bottom of a ring mold with olive slices (or capers) and carefully transfer mousse into the ring mold. Refreigerate at least 4 hours or over night until set. Unmold and serve with crackers.

Note: If you don't have a mold or don't want to fuss with that, just pour the mixture into several pretty bowls and set those around your party. Garnish when serving.

Cooking Gear To Spice Things Up

All-Clad cookwareI use the stainless line. I love it because you can put it in the dishwasher. If you like to cook it is sooo worth it to have quality pots and pans. I recommend buying a set on sale and then filling in extras as you need them. (Watch for sales and specials.)

Cast Iron SkilletPlease get rid of all your teflon-coated non-stick plans and get a cast iron skillet. I use mine for searing meat, poultry, and fish and then finishing off in the oven. In fact, get two cast iron skillets—one large enough to hold two ribeyes and a smaller, fried-egg-sized one for making...well...eggs.

Food ProcessorQuickly slice/shred veggies and cheese, make hummus or other spreads in a snap, and make pie crust without making a mess.

Global KnivesI am partial to the 18 incher. Yep, I like big knives and I cannot lie. If you like to cook (or even if you don't) you deserve to have good knives. At least one.

Instant Hot Water DispenserIf you can't afford to have one built-in, this is a great alternative. It's nice to have boiling water at the push of a button to make tea, instant miso soup, or morning oatmeal for the kidlets.

Microplane Grater/ZesterUse this to grate citrus zest, nutmeg, and cheese. You could get a coarser one, but you don't need to. I have one and I use it for everything.

SilpatSilpat is a silicone mat used for baking. They come in various sizes. Items will not stick to it. It is a must for any home baker.

Stick or Immersion BlenderIt doesn't have to be fancy, but try and get the highest HP you can afford. I use my stick blender (+ attachments) for making salad dressing (weekly), pureeing soups, making babyfood, and whipping cream.